


The Spiderling

by loisselina (LoisSelina)



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Abduction, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Avengers Tower, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Hydra, Hydra Peter Parker, Hydra Richard Parker, Iron Dad, Minor Violence, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Parent Tony Stark, Pepper Potts Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Biological Child, Tony Stark Has A Heart, avengers tower au of our 2012 dreams, but eh, civil war didn't happen, hydra can suck my dick and you may quote me on that, hydra mary parker, pepper potts is peters adoptive mother, peter parker getting into trouble, peter was forced into hydra, sorta - Freeform, teen for swearing or whatever, tony stark learning to parent, tony wasn't happy about the whole winter soldier killing his parents thing, will add more tags later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:34:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26656714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoisSelina/pseuds/loisselina
Summary: Peter Benjamin Anthony Parker-Stark was kidnapped from his home when he was four years old.Tony Stark searched tirelessly for him for the next ten years, only to have him fall into his hands by chance... only probably being that Peter was being 'looked after' by Hydra that whole time.------------“Hey! I said what’s your name? C’mon Sleeping Beauty. What the fuck did you give him?” This last bit was directed towards the scientist who was being sat on by some dude with this shiny arm, Peter frowned a little, it didn’t make sense, none of it did. There was a surge of familiarity, for both the man, something which told him he should run, should fight them, should give in.“”P-eter” He cleared his throat. “Pe’er Park’a.” He tried to push himself to sit up but one of the cold hands moved to his chest. He frowned at this strange and familiar man  who was keeping him down, was keeping him from his chance of escape.“ No.You’re not. ” The voice was so solid and certain. “You’re not in danger anymore, kid, just tell me your real name.”“I- I’m Peter.” He tried to say more certainly.
Relationships: Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Pepper Potts, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 45
Kudos: 315
Collections: Stories in which Peter Stark was kidnapped as a child.





	1. August 10th 2006 - August 10th 2010 - August 10th 2020

**Author's Note:**

> So yeah doing one of the most used plots but eh- also playing with the timeline and dates cause eh may as well 
> 
> if you're searching for good fics based on a similar trope I recommend:  
> ±If they knew about you by MsHermia  
> ±Hydra's not a home series by Tempestaurora

* * *

* * *

Anthony Edward Stark was fourteen when he had decided that he would never become a parent. It was when he had been unceremoniously dropped off at MIT, forced to pose with his ‘proud’ parents, then as soon as they were out of the view of the worlds’ media his father had slapped him for wearing a ACDC shirt, within five minutes his mother and father had left him, driving away for yet another ‘well deserved’ vacation, Tony filled the hole left by their departure with the serbian vodka Obie had given him as a leaving present. 

Tony later met Rhodey and the loss of his parents was forgotten, or at least he pretended it was, but his own promise stuck in his mind: He was never going to be a father. 

* * *

It had worked for years, he had always made sure to have protection, to check that the many women he slept with were clean and they were being safe, not that Virginia Potts ever seemed to believe that, it became like muscle memory. 

There had been false claims of course, enough that there was an entire legal department of Stark Industries devoted to it, none had been convincing enough to go far enough to get on Pepper (and therefore _his_ ) radar. 

He was safe. 

Always. 

* * *

But nothing was entirely effective, there was always going to be a small, incremental, chance that a pregnancy would occur. 

It had been Mary Parker who had turned all of that around. She had been the exception to the rule. She had passed every test and had the bump to prove it. 

She didn’t want a pay off, for _it_ , or for the whole workplace sexual harassment thingy which Pepper had been very mad at him about (she had only gotten madder when he had suggested that she was just jealous that a different red head had caught his eye, he had kept his mouth shut about only half kidding or he would have lost her). 

It had taken Tony one night of getting way too drunk, driving way too fast in his car, and falling into Rhodey’s apartment instead of into another girls bed like he had intended, for Tony to realise that he couldn’t stand to have a kid out there and to not know about them, to not be part of it. 

He amended his own, decades old, promise: He would never be a father _like his own father had been_. 

It took another two weeks to fully convince himself that he could do it, well he believed it about 80% which seemed like it was enough to tell Pepper and Mary Parker his decision, in that order. 

* * *

The next six months passed in a slew of changes, he moved all his weapons out of all his workshops in all of his properties, he stopped drinking, stopped taking drugs, he even started sleeping more, though he insisted that those three things weren’t linked, mostly to wind Pepper up. He looked up houses in Malibu, close to one of the Stark offices, but a good place for the kid to grow up, better than Manhattan, his kid was going to grow up around the beach, the year round sun, he’d take him to do all that outdoorsy scout shit his own father had never encouraged (he had once sent a house and home magazine type thing a photograph of Tony in a purchased scout uniform with the caption something about Tony particularly loving going fishing with his father, Tony often wondered if the sale of deadly weapons had increased after that). 

He bought every possible product he or Mary would need, set up bank accounts ready, he took classes on everything from infant first aid, to some infant martial arts class or something (okay perhaps he hadn’t paid much attention to that class but he had still taken it, it might have been like tai chi or something). He built nurseries in all of his homes, he baby proofed all of them, made sure that no weapons were allowed in any of the buildings, not even his current penthouse a the top of the Stark Tower. He insisted that if, when, they moved to Malibu he’d pay for whatever and whoever Mary needed to move with. 

The further into the pregnancy the more Mary Parker seemed to be around, but the quieter she was, there was something wrong but she insisted she was okay and would bring the talk back around to the one topic which could distract Anthony Stark:

Peter Benjamin Anthony Stark.

The names they had finally settled on after finding out that the baby would be a boy, Tony kept trying to add Parker in there too, partially because he knew that his father would have hated it, but Mary insisted no, Benjamin was after a brother of hers who had died, that was enough for her. She had insisted on the Anthony too, she had insisted it sadly after distracting him away from their original deal of 50/50 custody, he thought she might cut and run but she actually told him that she thought it would be a good idea for him to have the baby a little more, that she would work (and no she wouldn’t accept his handouts so he should stop asking). 

* * *

When Mary went into labour a month early and immediately rushed off due to complications Tony Stark was certain he was going to have a heart attack, instead he had a panic attack in the waiting room over the fear of losing his baby. Pepper had been at his side, had calmed him down, had been his anchor in the storm, or whatever the saying was. 

Hours, years, lifetimes, later the doctor called him into the room. 

He led Pepper in, holding her hand, she looked as scared as him, he only let go of her when he saw the hospital crib in the middle of the room, next to the empty and freshly made bed. His son. 

He was okay, the doctor insisted, a little smaller than ideal, but he was okay, he’d be okay, he was a fighter. 

Mary had been a fighter too, she really had, but there had been a clot, a massive one… she hadn’t survived. 

He was set out of the hospital three days later, with the tiny baby he was terrified to hold but couldn’t stop himself from holding, with Pepper, but without Mary. Peter Parker-Stark was already starting life with the disadvantage of only having 50% of his parents. 

* * *

Fatherhood was something which Tony was never quite sure he was achieving, or ever part of, not for those first six months anyway. Peter struggled to grow, he cried every time someone who wasn’t Pepper or Tony held him, he just wouldn’t sleep.  
Obie kept trying to get him to either sign over the company to him or to at least attend some of the meetings so he would, with Peter in this scarf-like contraption keeping him to his chest, Obie hadn’t been happy about that, but that was kind of the point.

Tony figured that Peter would fall asleep if he talked to him, or if they listened to Tony’s secret greatest 80’s hits playlist, that he liked to try and tinker in Tony’s office with him, that he loved the natural history museum, and their summers in Malibu where he played on the beach and Tony would do his best to keep his son out of the press as much as possible.

They celebrated every holiday together, him, Peter, and Pepper, who was just part of them now, not that she had ever been anything else. Tony’s birthdays stopped being huge parties and instead became a disney then, when the kid fell asleep, an action movie, and takeout with Pepper and Peter.

Tony didn’t know enough about Mary Parker to tell their son, she had refused to talk about herself, something he was only realising now, so he bought some books on organic chemistry, her specialty, and read them out loud to Peter until the, now, toddler fell asleep against his chest. 

Being a father was a mantle which Tony had grown in, excelled at, and had become the best Stark father in a century. 

* * *

Peter was what he owed his own success to, he was a clingy kid, but he was an angel, so much that Pepper would sometimes joke about getting a DNA test, he was incapable of lying (something he found when he had told Peter -who Tony had believed was asleep- that he loved Pepper and was going to ask her out on a date), he was so smart too, smart enough that at the age of four he had matched his father’s ability to design and build a circuit board, who made his Uncle Rhodey wear sparkly pink stickers when Tony and Peter had visited him at work, Rhodey had kept them on all day. The kid was still small for his age, but he never stopped talking, especially if it was to “daddy ‘n’ mommy Pep”, when Tony and Pepper got married in a small (only a thousand or so people) ceremony Peter dropped the Pep part, as though the kid had been waiting all his life for that day. 

In short, they were a family, they were happy, they struggled, they argued, Peter had tantrums and got sick sometimes, but for the most part they were happy. 

* * *

It happened when Peter was sick, when he was tired and whiny, when Pepper was across the country at some board meeting or scholarship awards ceremony night thing, whatever it was Tony had lost track off between the time difference and the crying, feverish, four year old who was clinging to him. 

“Daddy…!” 

“I know buddy, I know, c’mon Petey-Pie, just lie on the couch while Daddy gets your medicine.”

“Don’t wan’ you to go!” 

“Bambi, I’m not going anywhere, just grabbing it from there,” he let out in a sigh, pointing towards the kitchen, he pulled his son close to him, running his hand through his slightly sweaty brown curls before pressing a kiss to his forehead, “okay buddy. You trust me, right? I pinky promise I’ll be right back, as soon as you’ve counted to six.” 

“To six?”

“Yup,” He sent him the smile which was reserved for only Peter and Pepper… maybe Rhodey if he wasn’t annoying him, “unless you can’t count to six…”

“I can!” The kid shouted, his enthusiasm overtaking his tears. “Go daddy.” 

Tony grinned, relieved it had worked without having to carry the kid, even if he was small enough that it wasn’t _really_ a hassle, but Tony was starting to get older and feel those aches and pains of carrying a child nearly every day for four years. Tony pressed a last kiss to his forehead then let go of his son.

Peter began to count.

“One.” 

“Two.”

Tony was in the kitchen.

“Three.” 

Tony grabbed the bottle of medicine, his cellphone was ringing, it was one of the important ringtones, JARVIS would usually put it on speaker for him but Peter was there, he fished his phone out of his pocket, his back was to his son. 

“Four.”

The pain came hard and fast, something hitting the back of his head, hard, he fell to the floor unconscious. 

Peter never got to the number five.

* * *

Tony awoke in hospital, he had been kicked enough after he had passed out that he had broken ribs, a broken nose, apparently someone had even bothered to break his arm while he was down on his kitchen floor. He would have had some sardonic comment about them _really_ wanting to be rough with him… but instead he asked for Peter. 

The room went silent. 

He demanded again, this time louder, more forceful, even as he shouted he was trying to push himself out of the hospital bed. 

Pepper burst into the room as nurses tried to stop him from ripping IVs out of his arms. 

“They’ve got him! Someone took him! Tony, they took Peter!”

* * *

  
  


The years kept coming and they didn’t stop coming after that:

Tony was kidnapped, nearly died a few times, became a superhero, had his big coming out thing, nearly died from poisoning, scienced the shit out it, saved himself, joined the ‘Avengers’, Pepper died, or nearly died, he saved her, they finally fixed their marriage for good, helped Steve Rogers snap Bucky out of his funk/murderous assassin Buzz Lightyear Spanish mode thing, accidentally unleashed an evil AI, sacrificing Jarvis. They all had a fight in a Denny’s parking lot before realising it wasn’t worth it over some paperwork, instead they worked together, amending and rectifying the accords, eventually they got them passed.

And spent nearly ten years chasing down every hint, clue, whisper of Peter Stark. Nothing. Ever.

* * *

His phone rang, Rogers, who preferred to text which Tony found eerie coming from a nearly one hundred year old guy, he picked it up, knowing it would be a mission, something important, as they all treated him with kiddie gloves this day every year, not letting him get drunk, not letting him beat the shit out of human scum, not letting him be alone, not letting him go on missions.

“Ya?” His eyes flicked to the bottle of Johnnie Walker blue, onto the framed photograph of him, Pepper, and Peter, all together on Christmas morning. He had been so excited that day, he was finally old enough to understand it, he and Pepper were beaming at Peter as though he were their gift. “New York, yeah sure, 4 minutes…. Cap, I can look after myself, I’m fine, I’m used to it. Cut it out, and tell the others not to start, or I just won’t bother coming.” He hung up. 

He found himself stuck to his seat for a minute. “Happy Birthday, Petey-Pie.”

He left the lab ready to go on a mission, to prove to himself that he was right, that he was okay and he could do this until…. Until they had confirmation on Peter, one way or the other.


	2. August 10th 2020 - Secret Hydra Compound somewhere in the US of A

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter Parker forgets his birthday and gets an unwelcome present + makes one of the worst first impressions possible

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The response from the last chapter was amazing, I hope you all like this one as much

* * *

* * *

Peter hadn’t realised that he was sixteen until he was told that morning, fresh, and by fresh he meant sweaty, out of his mornings training, where he had had the shit beaten out of him by Dre, unsurprisingly. 

It felt ridiculous to say that his birthday was a surprise to him, it was rare that he left the training compound, or even watched live tv, his tablet told him the time and date, he guessed it made sense, it was already August, he had been sick and unconscious for a few weeks or so this year. 

“Happy sixteenth birthday, Peter Parker.” The scientist, Richard Parker, smiled down at him.

He always called him by his full name, always, since Peter had moved to this place, he had been in several before this, he couldn’t remember them too well, he had gotten a concussion and some amnesia, apparently.   
“Thanks.” He tried to hide the suspicion in his voice, he failed, though he was sure that his suspicion would be rewarded by his tutors. 

“We have some tests to run later, now you’re a man you can begin your career finally, I know you’ve always been itching to do more, to be more, if these tests work out you could be leaving the compound.”

Peter’s head shot up, his eyes lit up and widened before he could stop them he asked. “I can leave?”

“Well, on missions. Hydra will have plenty for you to do, Peter Parker you will travel the world, you’ll meet new people,-”

“-And kill them.” Peter finished for him. He added a small smile to try and elevate any trouble his ‘smart mouth’ was getting him in now. 

“Only bad guys, you know that.” He adjusted his tie. “I was thinking we could go somewhere, out of the compound, somewhere in New York, a birthday treat, you only turn sixteen once, after all.” 

Peter could have been wrong but this seemed to be off, Dr Parker was avoiding his eyes. “I have lessons today.”   
And that was true, the only ones he enjoyed were sciences, so long as the talk of torture methods were kept to a minimal, and languages as that seemed the most normal, at least according to his pirated movies he burned onto disks and watched when he knew he wouldn’t be caught and punished for interacting with the outside world too much.

“You’ve been excused, in preparation for the, for later on. You’re welcome to spend your day at the compound, if you’d rather-”

“The museum.” Peter interrupted. “The natural history one.”   
He remembered seeing it as a child, with someone who cared for him, according to his hacked files he had stayed with a Ben and May Parker at some point, the brother and sister-in-law of the Doc, no relation to him, not his parents. 

He received a tight smile in return and told to meet him at the tunnels near the school, they would use them to vacate their underground base apparently. 

Peter wondered, not for the first time, what it would have been like growing up in a normal home. With a family, a sixteenth birthday which sounded like the parties in the movies, a normal and happy life. But his parents hadn’t wanted him, had abused and abandoned him, he had been saved by Hydra, taken under Doctor Parkers wing, trained, made some almost friends. 

He had a purpose; he didn’t need a family.

* * *

  
  


It had been the best day Peter had been able to remember, until they returned to the compound that night and the doctor strapped him to a gurney, and injected him with bright red then bright blue solutions of some kind. The Doc was frantic, chattering about spiders, how this would help him, how he’d grow though Peter was certain that part was to make him feel better, for as long as he could remember he had been annoyed that he was so short and skinny for his age, smaller and younger looking than the rest of his class.

It _didn’t_ make him feel better. He trashed, trying to escape, maybe he could make it to an exit, find some way to get out, he knew he looked younger than sixteen but maybe he could use that to his advantage, he could claim to be young, get put in one of those kids homes, he could do that, just as long as he got away, fast. 

Then the pain hit. 

There was no way to really describe it, it felt like he was in so much pain that the pain almost gone, like a knob pushed so high that it’s going low again.

Then there was a noise, an explosion, like the ones the seniors had took them to watch when Hydra used an empty village as practice. 

Then nothing, darkness. 

He had passed out, everything hurt, he could barely move.

* * *

The pressure on his wrists alleviated, his face was tapped, he screw it up and tried to turn away, a large hand was on his face trying to get him to focus on him. 

Words were hitting his ears but he couldn’t make anything out, it was as though he was underwater. 

He squinted his eyes open, looking around at the ceiling trying to catch sight of fish swimming about him. Another hand went to the other side of his face, as cold as the first one, he had no choice but to focus on the man.

The man was talking to him, the man was a little younger than Dr Parker, he had brown eyes darker than his own, and his face was surrounded by metal. 

“Hey! I said what’s your name? C’mon Sleeping Beauty. What the fuck did you give him?” This last bit was directed towards the scientist who was being sat on by some dude with this shiny arm, Peter frowned a little, it didn’t make sense, none of it did. There was a surge of familiarity, for both the man, something which told him he should run, should fight them, should give in.

“”P-eter” He cleared his throat. “Pe’er Park’a.” He tried to push himself to sit up but one of the cold hands moved to his chest. He frowned at this strange and familiar man who was keeping him down, was keeping him from his chance of escape.

“ _No.You’re not._ ” The voice was so solid and certain. “You’re not in danger anymore, kid, just tell me your real name.”

“I- I’m Peter.” He tried to say more certainly but he was mostly focused on trying to sit, but he was stopped again.

“You’re not. I’m not going to play along with your Hitler youth mind games, real name now. If you’re smart you’ll know that today’s not the day for that.”

Peter opened his mouth, he wanted to protest several things, starting with the Hitler shit, he wasn’t like that, he wasn’t like _them_ , not really. And if he was it wasn’t because of anything he had said or done. And that his name was Peter, like Christ did this guy get kicked out of Neverland or something. 

Naturally, instead of saying either of those things, of arguing his point, he threw up on the metal man then passed out, again. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> reviews help me write faster, feed my crops, cure my mental illness, nourish me, hydrate me, plough my fields ... wait actually that sounds wrong


	3. August 10th 2020 - Avengers Compound

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meanwhile at the Hydra compound

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters in one day? *this could be a dream by the 1975 plays*

* * *

* * *

Tony grimaced. “Great, just great,” He grumbled, moving the kid into the recovery position, just in case he threw up again. His head snapped to Bucky when he heard him trying to suppress a laugh. “I’ll bill you for the dry cleaning, Elsa.” He nodded his head to the Doctor who was also passed out, his nose was bleeding, apparently Bucky had punched him to knock him out, Tony sent his teammate a nod of appreciation. “Call medical will ya?” 

“For him?” Bucky glared down at the doctor, unsurprisingly he had something against hydra scientists doing experiments on young unwilling subjects. “He’ll survive.”

“The _kid_.” 

“Oh.”

“Friday, when we get back I want you to analyse this shit.” Tony spoke aloud, using one of the scientific vials he carried in his suit to collect the few droplets left from whatever the kid had been injected with. He glanced over and saw that he was still out. He wanted to be back over there, but hearing the name he claimed to be stung too much. He had to remember where they were. He took a small black circle which looked like a magnet and placed it onto the computer. “And start sending all the files they’ve ever had on any of these computers, even the shit they think they’ve deleted, I want it all.” 

“ _Of course, Boss. I shall remind you to give me the ‘shit’ to analyse when you return to the compound._ ”

“Are you saying that I’m likely to forget?” He raised his brow though he knew that his AI couldn’t see it. 

“ _Research has shown memory problems caused by aging brains, memory can also be affected by emotional duress which you may experience today-”_

“-Okay.” Tony rolled his eyes, he already had Pepper and the rest of his team on his back about today, the last thing he needed was his own AI on his back too. He walked back over to the kid, moving to sit on the floor beside him. He looked young, a teenager maybe, way too skinny and pale, his hair was sticking to his head with sweat some of the strands had curled from the heat. He couldn’t resist holding his hand out, he couldn’t feel it through his suit but he knew Friday could tell what he wanted.

“ _He has a 102.4 degree fever boss. Medical is on their way.”_

“Tell them to hurry.” Tony growled, sliding himself under the kid to hold him out of instinct. He switched channels. “How’s everyone doing? We’ve covered the lab, we’ve got a Frankenstein and a baby Frankenstein's monster here, both unconscious, something’s going on here, these two are coming with us to our medical wing and our questioning room. Did anyone know there’d be a kid here?”

Captain America’s voice came through both Tony and Bucky’s coms. “We ran into several here too. We were told it was a Hydra soldier training base.” there was a sigh from the Cap then the noise of someone being punched. “We’re going to have to put them through deprogramming, and find out where they all come from…” 

“Capsicle, do we need to have the birds and the bees talk?” 

“I meant…” 

“He means they might have been abducted or given to Hydra.” Bucky interrupted. 

Tony swallowed the bile rising in his throat. “Who’d give their kid to Hydra?” He said out loud and was relieved that Bucky didn’t try to give him a therapy session like the others were intent on doing. “Make sure the team gets everything on computers and everything in paper files, I want it all, tell SHIELD it goes through me first.”

* * *

  
  


Tony rode on the quinjet back to the compound instead of flying himself back, he had the power left in his suit and it wasn’t that far, but instead he found himself in the medical wing, standing next to the kid. 

“Is he gonna be okay?” 

Tony didn’t turn when he heard Steve’s voice coming into the room, instead his eyes stayed on Dr Cho and her team. “They’re trying to get his temperature down, and figure out what the fuck they did to him.”

“I didn’t know they had child soldiers there, or I wouldn’t-”

“-Can you not?” Tony cut him off without heat. “Seriously, I can survive today.”

“Bucky said the kid was calling himself Peter Parker.”

“Did he now?” 

“He did. Tony I know Peter was the name of your son…” 

“It’s not him.” 

“I didn’t-”

“I would know, Cap. Petey’s… they must have told him to say that. It doesn’t…” He shook his head and added levity to his tone. “They should have told him to call himself Peter Stark, or Peter Parker-Stark, it would have made it more shocking, I’m rating it a six outta ten.” Steve let out a laugh but Tony was fairly certain it was out of sympathy. 

“Hydra have always been trying to create another super soldier, maybe that’s what they’ve been trying to do, but he’s just a kid.” 

“A highly trained Hydra kid.” Tony pointed out. “We should keep an eye on all of them, I’m not saying I don’t like our chances, but I was hoping for a movie night rather than having to stop an army of pipsqueaks.” 

Steve nodded in agreement. “You want him in our medical wing?” 

“He was injected with something, we don’t know what, if we had got there earlier we might have been able to stop it. I’m not saying it’s on us, but…” 

“Yeah.” 

  
  


* * *

“Mr Stark, do you need to be checked over too?” 

Tony shook his head at the nurse, he had to sit through one of those boring debriefs before he could get down to the medical wing of the compound, after changing out of that suit of course; in fact he was thinking about melting it down if the cleaning Friday was sorting out didn’t work.   
“I’m just here to perform guard duty.” He didn’t stop to make small talk like he knew The Cap would, instead wandered into the closest room he had just glanced Dr Cho inside of. 

When Dr Cho asked him the same thing he gave the same answer. “Mr Stark, he's deeply asleep, his fever is still high, even without the pain medication I’ve put him on.”

“He’s in pain?” 

“As far as I can tell, from the sample you uploaded, whatever they injected him with is like a virus, it’s attacking and latching onto his DNA, and changing it, I’ve never had that happen to me, but I think it must be very painful, I personally would rather be asleep.” 

Tony couldn’t help but agree with that, he hummed in response. He dropped himself down into the armchair at the hospital bed’s side. The Avengers medical rooms were nice, like private hospitals with nearly unlimited funding, the prison ones still had the best equipment but were a lot more barebones, less potential weapons, no chairs for visitors, restraints on the bed, armed guards nearby. He said he wanted the kid nearby so they could run their tests, and that was true, but also the kid had looked so young and lost that Tony had felt bad for him, maybe he was getting soft in his old age, or maybe it was because of it being _his_ Peter’s birthday.

“Do they know who he is?” 

Tony shook his head. “Fri?” one of the tiles in the ceiling pulsed with a gentle light. “Run facial recognition on everyone we brought in today, start with the kid, all over the world, every police-like force, even if you have to hack in.” He looked back at Dr Cho. “You got a sample of his Dna?” 

“Of course, I took blood from him as soon as he came in, one of my team is keeping an eye on the blood as it mutates.” 

“Mutates? He’s a mutant?” 

“I guess he is now. It’s fascinating, really.”

“Don’t suppose you want to stick around for a week or so? Keep an eye on the kid? Run some tests with Banner?” 

A small smile spread across her face. “Sure, I have to be abroad in a month, a doctors without borders thing, but until then I’m free to be here, if you want me.”

“You know you could move from your normal hospital to here full time, right? It comes with excellent benefits, I mean unless you’re me in which case it means that your team lives in your building and steals all your food.”

“I like my job, thanks, and I’m here half the time anyway.”

“If you ever change your mind…” He let the question hang as he heard the kid moan. “He’s going to be okay, right?” 

Helen paused. “I’ve never seen this before, I can’t make guarantees, I’m not even sure how or if I can treat it.”

“How about the cradle?”

She shook her head. “It works on DNA, at the moment his DNA is changing, if we even tried it it would certainly kill him, I think the only hope he has is us doing nothing.” 

They stayed silent and still watching the kid, hearing the beep of all the many machines he was hooked up to, there was sweat appearing on his brow. Before Helen could move into action she watched Tony pick up the cool cloth from the side and wipe his forehead. Sometimes, often when he was being especially cocky or trying to wind others up, she forgot that he had been a father. “Will you be staying in here?” 

Tony shrugged, placing the cloth down, he reclined in his seat and pulled out his tablet which he had folded up in his pocket. “Like I said, guard duty.” 

Looking at the boy he really looked like no problem, even if he woke up he was skinnier than her, paler too, probably with a wide array of vitamin deficiencies, she was fairly sure she could take him, even if he was Hydra trained. “Sure.” She said to herself, watching Tony Stark (™) mask fall back into place- telling Friday to show him live footage of the DNA and pulling up what documents from the tablet into the air with the flick of the hand, all while sounding as though he couldn’t care less. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to type friday in complete caps but cannot do it, i hate it, so shes being spelt like this, im sorry full caps is too angry


	4. August 11th 2020- 6am

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony sit's on guard watch overnight.
> 
> A match is found.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i don't know how I'm writing so much, please keep expectations very low

* * *

* * *

Peter Parker was in a room too bright with fire flooding through every cell of his body. He kept his eyes shut as tight as possible, stopping a moan from escaping his lips, he tried his best to remember what happened. Dr Parker. Spider? A man who was there… being injected with something, there was danger, someone, that man the… He couldn’t remember anything clearly, he felt as though he was trying to run through the sea, not that he had ever gone to the sea or a beach, but he couldn’t get wade through his thoughts, everything hurt too much. He wanted to sleep for about five years, but his training told him to stay awake. 

A voice boomed and he was sure that he jumped a little but apparently the man didn’t see it.

  
••••••

“What’s the time Fri?” 

“ _Two in the morning, Boss, Mrs Boss sent you a text message two hours ago telling you that you needed to sleep, and Captain Star-Spangled reminded you that there is pizza and Indian in the Avengers kitchen.”_

“So they ate all the Thai? - Wait, you’re reading my texts now?”

“ _I was told to make you aware of them several times by both Mrs Stark and by Captain Rogers, the Captain wanted me to tell you that there are enough people around to-”_

Peter let out a small moan as he tried to breathe through the pain. He grimaced, he knew then and there that he fucked up. 

“That’s enough Fri. So, you’re awake.” 

Peter kept his eyes closed and tried not to move, maybe the guy was talking to that lady.

“Jojo Rabbit, I’m talking to you. You’re not that convincing at pretending to sleep, just an FYI.” 

Peter opened his eyes then immediately squinted them shut so much that they were almost closed, everything was bright and stark white. 

“Fri, dim the lights to about twenty percent.”

The lights dimmed to near darkness and Peter managed to open his eyes wide enough to see the man at the side of his bed, he turned his head slowly. He opened his mouth to sleep, couldn’t get words out at first, cleared his throat then tried again. “Y’know you’re making references people in Hydra wouldn’t get, right? And no one says FYI anymore.” 

“How would you know?” Tony couldn’t help but grumble at the implied ‘you’re old’ of his comment, he was still young enough, he grabbed the cup of water and held it toward the kid, he continued to hold it as the kid drank the water through the straw. He debated pointing out that he had just accepted it without checking to see if it was poison. “You got my reference.” 

“I figured out how to get past the firewalls to pirate movies.” Peter tried to sound as casual as possible, it was clear now who he was talking to, Iron Man, Tony Stark, the genius, inventor, hero, his natural enemy. “You’d figure that a big evil agency would encourage breaking the law but apparently not.” 

Tony let out a bark of laughter despite himself. “You can’t get out of here, it’s pointless searching for exits, I mean there’s armed guards in the waiting room, Avengers all over the place, and obviously I’m Iron Man.”

Peter looked away. “Never heard of him.” 

“Well, you’re a shit liar.” Tony couldn’t help but respect his snark though. “But it’s not like you can move much anyway. What experiment did you sign up for?” 

“Who said I signed up for anything?” 

“Isn’t that Hydra’s whole thing, wanting to be the best little child soldier possible?”

“I’m not a child.” He glared at the snort of laughter. “I’m sixteen, in a lot of countries that makes me basically an adult.” 

“ _You’re sixteen_?” Tony’s voice said it all: Bullshit. “So you’re saying that you didn’t sign up for it?”

“I didn’t say that either.” 

Tony rolled his eyes. “Look you can tell me now if you like, I don’t really care more than a professional curiosity, but tomorrow you’ll be talking to the Black Widow, y’know feared Russian Superspy… Then probably several SHIELD agents, I don’t know who but they’re probably boring and won’t be as interesting company as I am.”

Peter shrugged then winced in pain. He heard Tony Stark sigh. “Mr Stark, I’ve been trained for years to handle torture-”

“Whoa! Whoa, who said anything about torture?! You’re a kid! I mean not to play down their techniques but I’m pretty sure SHIELD don’t waterboard minors, I mean not anymore anyway. Hydra waterboards you?”

Peter clenched and unclenched his hands into fists when he was sure he could move them; he adjusted the blankets to pull them closer. 

“What’s your name?”

Peter’s eyes stayed on his blankets but he could feel his cheeks redden remembering their first meeting. “I already told you.” 

“ _No_.” Tony’s voice took on an edge of steel which was so strong yet quiet that Peter was forced to look at him again. “You used that to try and get a reaction from me. What’s your real name?”

“To get a reaction?” 

Tony tried not to soften when he watched the kid’s head tilt to the side like a goddamn golden retriever, but honestly it would have even worked against Natasha, who Tony had never managed to soften. “Yes. You obviously know about me, and tried to use it against me.” 

“I don’t know anything about you- I mean I know that you’re Iron Man, and I know some of the things that you’ve invented, I mean the Arc Reactor was a stroke of genius, and the suit, you seriously made the first one in a cave? I’ve seen the footage, it was on our servers, I mean some of the stuff while you were being tortured was on there too but I never really watched those things, but that’s it! I’ve never researched you-... I mean...You’re not really that interesting.” 

It was the most alive and upbeat Tony had seen him, though the more he moved the more his face contorted into pain and he paled. Really he needed to get more sleep, maybe stronger meds, Tony wasn’t an expert in medicine but he knew what all the machines did. They showed that most of his levels were either off the charts or way under what they should be, the kid should be asleep. He shivered as he blabbered on, Tony touched his watch to turn the temperature of the already hot room up.   
“D’you always talk so much or is it the drugs?” Tony watched his face fall and he looked down, the former then. “I’m going to assume your DNA being rewritten is why you mistakenly believe that I’m not interesting.” 

“My DNA’s being rewritten?!” He tried to push himself up but he couldn’t; he felt too weak. It was enough of a struggle to keep his eyes open. 

“You’ll be okay.” Tony tried not to make a habit of lying and hoped that he wasn’t. “We’ll help you. Even though you haven’t given me a straight answer to anything.” 

“Peter Parker.” His eyes fluttered shut as he began to lose his fight to sleep, he wanted to stay awake, to demand to know what was happening to him, hell he wanted to go and punch the answer out of the doc. “It’s my name. P’ter Par’er.” He could hear the slur in his voice as he began to fall asleep. “Aft’r the’doc.” 

Tony narrowed his eyes watching him then let out a sigh. “Okay. I’ll call you Peter, for now. But we’re going to find out who you really are,” He thought of his own son, a couple of years younger than Peter, if the kid was to be believed, lost for a decade, “you’re gonna go back to your parents, so long as they’re safe. Once we make sure that you’re not Hydra, that is.” 

“M’not.” 

“Which one? Peter or going back to your parents?” 

But Peter was already fast asleep. 

  
Tony rubbed a hand over his face, why the hell was he down here?   
Why was he stuck at this ‘Peter’’s side instead of in his bed with his wife dreaming of his son?   
But he already knew why, he wouldn’t have been asleep, he wouldn’t have been dreaming. 

“How’s the search going Fri?” He asked aloud. 

“ _The DNA of the subject was corrupted when given to me, I’m working on it.”_

“Okay, I… see if the DNA markers match or are at least seventy percent similar to missing childrens’ cases from the US… maybe…,” He rubbed his hand over his face again, “maybe from about ten years ago, Peters, or names similar…” 

“ _Can do, boss._ ”

“And Fri? Call him Peter, or the kid or pretty much anything but ‘the subject’.” 

There was a gentle beep accompanying a just as gentle pulse of light from a ceiling tile. He stood up, he should head to his rooms, he should talk to Pep; he picked up the cloth and dabbed the sweat which had built up on his brow. 

“What am I doing?” He muttered to himself as he settled into the chair to keep watch over the boy, he grabbed his tablet again and started to go through Hydra’s data.

  
  


* * *

  
  


Tony woke to a hand on his shoulder and he knew straight away that it was Pepper, he melted back against her hands without saying anything. He could tell from her silence, the lack of a jokey greeting, the fact that she was running her hands down his shoulder, that she had spoken to one of his team, probably the Cap, he was the most likely to tell Pepper, she knew what the kid was calling himself.

“Tony… James- Bucky,” she corrected, “told me-.” 

“It’s not him.” 

“Tony-” 

“It’s _not_ . I’d know if it was Peter, _our Peter_ . This kid was just on the other side of New York. If he was- I would have found him sooner. It’s _not_ him.” 

“Okay.” 

She kept her voice soft and when Tony finally turned to look at her he could see her eyes on the kid in the bed, who now had an oxygen mask on his face. His breath caught in his throat. “Peter’s a pretty common name, and he said his last name was Parker after the scientist, the Hydra work records back that up, Richard Parker, I’m trying to find the kids’ records but there’s nothing from more than a few years ago.” 

“You want me to go over some?” 

Tony raised one eyebrow and stared at his wife before hesitating. “You never want to get involved in Avengers work.”

“You never sit at a kid’s side all night.” She countered. 

“We don’t often take in kids.” 

Pepper gave him a look to show that she didn’t believe that, she ended up staring at the kid, just like Tony was doing. “It’s six am, this is probably the most you’ve slept in years. Maybe you should spend more time down here.” She was met with a small huff of a laugh but nothing else.

“Cho still here?” 

“Yeah. She said that he’s more stable, his temperature has gone down, they’ve been keeping him on pain relief, vitamin replacements, saline to keep him hydrated. His muscle mass has increased during the night; kind of like what we know about Steve’s experiment, she said his body seems to be burning through the medication quickly- she’s having to give him nearly Steve or Bruce levels.”

Tony nodded slowly, he wrapped one arm around Pepper, with the other he wiped the sleep away from his eyes. “We’re gonna have to do some tests on him.” He caught sight of her face. “Noninvasive ones, some blood and tissue ones too, but mostly like throwing a ball and getting him to fetch it.”

“You know he’s not a dog right?”

“Supersoldier, dog, what’s the difference?”

“So you think he’s a super soldier.” 

“I truly don’t know, Pep, that was my father’s thing, not mine. You’d have thought they’d give up on that whole thing now, I mean every time they tried they fucked it up, that’s why we’ve got two and they’ve just got some gravestones.”

“Anyone talked to the bastard who did this to him?” 

“Raggedy Ann is on it, first thing this morning.” 

“You ever call her that to her face?”

“Nah, I’m dumb but I’m not _dumb_ dumb, y’know.” 

“...sure.”

“Hey-!”  
  


•••••

“ _Boss.”_

Tony’s protests were immediately silenced by the AI. He stilled, slowly raising his eyebrow as he said the computer's name, dragging the three letters out as much as he could. “Fri?”

“ _There has been a match to the kid’s DNA.”_

“That quickly?” 

He could practically hear Pepper’s head snap to him, he didn’t look at her, staring up at the ceiling as though it actually was Friday. “I, er, had her check american Peters, seemed the most likely, or quickest to eliminate.” Tony told his wife distractedly. “Fri, how good a match?” He should ask who he was, who his parents were but he couldn’t.

“ _It was an eighty nine percent match from the initial DNA profile. I checked it against the maternal and paternal matches on my database, I can now confirm it_ is _a positive match.”_

 _“_ You have their DNA on profile?” Pepper interjected when it became clear that Tony wasn’t about to ask. “Are they any of the HYDRA agents they brought in?”

“No ma’am. These matches had been on my system for over fourteen years.”

“Don’t say it.” Tony’s voice was nothing more than a whisper, a shadow of his usual self.

_“The kid brought in is Peter Benjamin Anthony Parker-Stark, born August tenth two thousand and six, at New York Presbyterian Hospital in Manhattan, to Anthony Edward Stark and Mary Fitzpatrick Parker, Mary Fitzpatrick Parker passed away in childbirth on the tenth of August, two thousand and six. Before her death she had been working at Stark Industries, where her DNA and fingerprints were taken as part of the security protocol put in place on December tenth two thousand. Peter Parker-Stark’s DNA was taken at birth and put into the personal database of Anthony Stark, this was sent out world wide in two thousand and ten in hopes of finding Peter Parker-Stark who was abducted from the Stark Tower in two thousand and ten, on his fourth birthday.”_

“It’s _not_ him!” Tony growled.

“ _I have run the test one hundred and five times to be sure, as instructed when I was booted up, the Peter Pan Protocol, I have also run facial recognition, compared his face to Mary Parker’s and Tony Stark’s, along with Peter Parker-Starks facial progression made yearly at the Boss’ request. This is Peter Parker-Stark-”_

“No. It’s not. Run them again, it’s not-!”

“Tony!” 

He silenced himself, he realised that he had stood up and was manically shouting at the ceiling. Now Pepper’s hands were on his, his arms, holding him, helping him despite the tears in her own eyes. 

“Pep, it can’t be.”

“ _Tony_. It’s him. It’s…” Her eyes fell on the sleeping boy, his brown hair the same at the toddler’s, the same chin, the nose, she hadn’t seen his eyes open but she wondered it they were still that same hazel brown which matched Tony’s own, only Peter’s had always managed to get her to do anything she wanted, Tony’s had never worked on her. “It’s Peter, right? It… Tony, he looks like you. He looks like Petey.”

“It can’t be. Pepper, it can’t, I would have known I would have… shit, Pep… what did they do to him?” This couldn’t be his Peter, it just couldn’t, he wouldn’t have let this happen to his son…. 

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh my god peter is tony's son? who would have guessed, huh
> 
> catch me over at loboselinaistrash.tumblr.com to ask me questions of see the garbage i reblog  
> reviews are always appreciated and loved and desperately needed


	5. August 11th 2020- The Avengers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter meets the Avengers, Tony makes a decision

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ayyy look at that a new chapter! thanks for all the reviews guys (i cba pasted an emoji onto here but imagine that little cute red cheeked smile emoji with the shut eyes, yeah thats the one)

****

**\---11am---**

Peter wasn’t sure what time it was when he woke up, there were no windows in the hospital room, he was sure that Iron Man was no longer there though, even without looking the man’s presence was palpable, the loss of it was just as palpable by contrast. 

He slowly wiggled his toes, his fingers, he could move them all, he was okay. Well, he felt like he had just been run over by eight trains, which meant he was feeling better than he had been. 

“It’s eleven am, August eleventh. You’re at the Avenger’s compound, outside of New York.” 

“Shit. You’re the Black Widow.” Peter’s amazement slipped out under his breath without his consent, he watched her smirk, shit, she had heard it. “Is this an interrogation? Mr Stark said someone was going to integrate me, is that you? I mean I get it, you need to do your job, but can we schedule the whole waterboarding thing for later rather than right now? I didn’t sleep well, got kidnapped by you guys, something about my DNA mutating too, it’s really nothing personal, I’d just rather we schedule the waterboarding for this afternoon or tonight.”

“They don’t let me do that anymore. Waterboarding. I think I’d get like a wage decrease or something if I waterboarded a kid, probably more if I did it to you.” 

“Yeah, Mr Stark said you don’t do that, but you’re… kinda scary looking, no offence.” It took Peter a minute to realise that she had been trying to make a joking comment. “I… look I really don’t know anything, like anything, I’m just… I just went to school, I’ve never even been allowed on a proper mission.” 

“Stark’s right, you really can’t lie, can you?” 

“I can!” His voice broke and he scrunched his face up in embarrassment, god, he would have rather she was waterboarding him. He had always been the youngest in his classes at the compound, he had to fight to be seen as an equal, puberty, however, had not been kind to him.

“ты всего лишь ребенок”

“Я не ребенок!” 

Natasha smiled slowly, her own russian accent was perfect, Peter’s was just as perfect, he had been taught to perfect his accent. “So, they were training you to be a spy, or an assassin then, Bucky was right.” They had got about as much out of the other ‘students’ and some of the scientists they had brought into custody, Richard Parker had so far stayed quiet, along with the other operatives.

Peter gave a small half shrug and replied quietly, this time in English with his usual american accent. “I only ever wanted to be a scientist.”

“Was that what you wanted to be when you were a little kid?”

Peter hesitated; he had always been taught, these were the bad guys, the guys who destroyed Sokovia, who unleashed a murderous AI on the world, but he had also seen the things that Hydra had done, what they wanted him to do. What they had done to him. He had seen The Avengers fighting the Aliens, Iron Man had , Captain America, Falcon, and Black Widow had taken down most of Hydra nearly single handedly (well he had heard that apparently Captain Star-Spangled had given some patriotic speech as a sort of call to arms, but Peter counted it as single handedly).

“I don’t know.” Peter admitted when he forced himself out of his head. “I had a concussion a few years back, I don’t remember much before it, bits and pieces. I think I always liked science though, I’m good at it, and,” Peter shrugged, “why’s it matter who I was in the past, the future’s more important.” He watched the Black Widow nod. 

He was almost certain that neither of them believed his words.

  
  


* * *

**\---3pm---**

Peter shouldn’t be in awe, his Hydra teachers would have hated that he was struggling to stay still he was so excited, but this was BRUCE BANNER, sure he was the Hulk, but he was also a certified Genius, a world renowned scientist, and he was here taking his blood.

“Natasha says you’re interested in science?” It was the first thing other than “Do you mind if I take your blood” Bruce had said since making his introductions when he entered Peter’s hospital room.

“Y-Yeah, yeah, I mean we learnt all about your gamma radiation experiments, and I like that, and like mechanical engineering, but I also like biochem, things like that. I wanna-...”    
He stopped himself from saying ‘help people’, he was nearly entirely certain you didn’t just ‘get out’ of Hydra, he’d probably end up in jail, at the very least he would always have the ‘Hydra’ title attached to him.    
But he had that feeling in his stomach again, the one which made him certain it was part of his past, maybe in the past he had wanted to pursue something where he could help people.

Bruce changed the vial to a new one placing the full one onto the tray there two others were. “Maybe you could come and help us in the lab soon, if it’s okay with Tony - I mean it’s his labs, and… and we’re probably going back to the tower soon, so...” He trailed off shaking his head. “How  _ are _ you feeling?”

“Better. I’m fine.” He was more than fine in fact, he felt better than he ever remembered feeling, sure he still felt tired from the experiment and he was cold still but “Is the... is what he did to me, is it dangerous?” 

“No, all the tests we’ve run - simulations with your previous samples, they show us that whatever was meant to happen happened. We’re going to have to run some tests, I’m sorry, I don’t want you to feel like a labrat, I promise that we won’t,  _ I _ wouldn’t.”

Peter locked eyes with the scientist, and the ferocity in them made him relieved that he had never met The Hulk, if the famously mild man could have eyes like this. There was something comforting about that, the fact that Banner said he would basically protect him from becoming another experiment. Peter decided to cautiously trust him, in lieu of any more promising options.

  
  


* * *

**\---6pm---**

Hawkeye and Thor were lounging in his room when he woke up from his next nap, on the low table between them were about seven boxes of pizza, there were also several bottles of drinks. 

“Wanna slice?” Hawkeyes words were slurred due to what was possibly, more than possibly it was nearly certainly, an entire slice of pizza in his mouth. He held a white paper plate, piled with about five slices of pizza, out towards Peter.

“Aren’t you meant to be,” Peter yawned yet he reached out to accept the plate, “y’know interrogating me?” 

“Sure, you a vegetarian?” 

Peter shook his head no. He took a bite from the triple cheese pizza, letting a string form from his mouth to the slice as he chewed a bite full.

“That’s all the interrogating I need to do. Tasha likes you, and you’re not a vegetarian, not that there would be a problem with that - it would be our secret though so I got all the meat you didn’t eat, but… Imma shut up now.” 

Peter tried to hide hide his smile at yet another super spy apparently being not as impressive as Hydra taught him, and he certainly didn’t mind. 

“Would you like a drink?”

Peter swallowed the mouthful of pizza, began to hold his hand out for a bottle from Thor, the god of lightning, which was so bizarre Peter wasn’t sure he could think about it just yet, but then hesitated. “I, er, I don’t drink.”

“Relax, kid,” Clint rolled his eyes, “there’s no alcohol, Stark frisked us before we came in.” 

“Mr Stark’s outside my room?” 

“Ya, been here all day, we had to distract him so Nat could come speak to you earlier.” Clint Barton slurped the cheese off of a slice of pizza, frowning when he ended up with the BBQ sauce on his purple tee. He finally shrugged it off before looking up at Peter. He raised an eyebrow as he scratched the skin behind one of his hearing aids. “You not know?”

Peter shrugged, part of him wondering why the billionaire had bothered to stay guard outside of his room all day, trying (and apparently failing) to keep wayward Avengers out of his room, the other part wondered why he hadn’t come inside, it had been kind of interesting talking to him the day before, their little  tête-à-tête. 

“Heal, youngone,” Thor put on a purposely shakespearean style of speaking, Peter was sure of it, he was sure he wasn’t speaking like that before he knew Peter was awake, “while you heal and rejuvenate I shall regial you with stories of my most Heroic Deeds.”

* * *

**\---8pm---**

Peter spent most of the day sleeping, according to Doctor Cho it was due to the med which was the reason why he wasn’t in pain, he guessed that made sense, but one day in the bed was enough for Peter. 

He was sure that once or twice he caught sound of Tony Stark, demanding texts, arguing with the irish voice of Friday, and an american accent which Peter could recognise as the Stark Industries CEO Pepper Potts-Stark, she was trying to convince him of something but as soon as Peter got close to figuring out what Peter would be interrupted by someone, a nurse, or this time,  _ Captain fuckin’ America, _ smiling at him like they were old friends, or like Peter was a golden retriever. 

He walked into the room and stood at the end of Peter’s bed, his hands on his hips, he stared at Peter as though he was trying to see something in him. Peter had to admit he was a little fearful of him, sure Peter suddenly had a six pack, but Captain America was, well, he was Captain America, and Peter was Hydra, not that he had been given much choice in the matter.

“Has anyone told you that you look kinda like a dorito? Not that it’s a bad thing, I just…” Peter shrugged, trying to break the silence by insulting him probably wasn’t  _ the _ best idea he had ever had, but he had never learnt to shut up.

“Tony has, actually.” Steve admitted but he continued to smile gently at him. “Do you mind if I sit down?”

Peter shrugged, “It’s your not so super secret base, not mine.” 

“It does have a giant A on the top of it doesn’t it.” Steve chuckled, taking the seat which his coworkers had all sat in. “I did try to point that out to Tony, he said something about branding and called me old, I gave up after that.”

Peter let out a laugh. “I mean technically aren’t you younger than him, you know due to being frozen, and he’s like, not exactly young.” He received a beaming smile in return and knew his instructors would hate it if they had seen it, that was part of the pleasure. 

“The Hydra base where you were at, it was kind of like a school and home for you?”

“I don’t know much about the super evil work they did, I swear,” Peter put on his most bored sounding tone, he wasn’t trying to copy Tony Stark, but he did want to copy the whole ‘I don’t care’ attitude he had perfected over the years, anything was better than blabbering on, “honestly ask any of my teachers I was a bad student; never did my homework, didn’t pay attention, questioned them, I wasn’t trusted to even be told passwords to places, I had to figure them out myself.”

“I wasn’t… we already know most of the stuff, we took in a lot of scientists and kids, both of whom aren’t the best at secret keeping, especially when they’re scared they’ll be prosecuted for being terrorists, or if they’re hopeful they can finally go home to their families. I was just asking about you, son.”

“Oh. I, er, yeah, sometimes I was allowed out, I went on like two missions, both as an interpreter, not since last year though, and a few times I was allowed out, like yesterday, the doc took me to the Natural History Museum to see their new exhibition, for my birthday, but then he injected me with some super painful DNA change-y serum so he kinda ruined it.” That got a smile from the Captain, a trying to hide a laugh sort of one. 

“You been there long?”

“Three years.”

“And before that?”

“No idea. I can’t remember, amnesia, I get glimpses, but that’s it.” He watched him nod, clearly the Avengers had been talking and putting all their information on him together.

“What are the glimpses? They don’t have to be right, we can try and find out for you, maybe have Wanda help you find them, if it’s okay with you and… Were you held on a different compound.”

Peter shook his head. “I think it was with a different scientist, someone Doc Parker knew, I think, he was nice, I don’t think he was Hydra, I think he was keeping me safe, he had a wife, she had a pretty smile, I think there was a car crash…” He shook his head, squeezed his eyes shut, and tried to think. “I think I saw Iron Man once, I had been the Stark Expo, Aunt May had bought me an Iron Man costume…” His voice had taken on a far away quality, he shook his head. “I think they died in a car crash, that’s what I was told anyway.”

Steve Rogers nodded slowly. “Nothing from before that?”

Peter shook his head, the Captain nodded in reply, looking slightly disappointed. It was like seeing a kicked puppy, which might have been on the Hydra middle school syllabus but it wasn’t on Peter’s. “My mom, she was in Hydra too.”

A pause. “You’re certain?”

Peter nodded. “Mary Parker, she was married to Doctor Parker, she was a biochem scientist and an operative.”

Another pause. “You’re sure about that?”

Peter nodded but didn’t look at him. He was literally born to be hydra, he didn’t know who his dad was, Doctor Parker had made it very clear that it wasn’t him, but he was probably just another Hydra lackey, he really had never had a choice. “She died because I… She died in labour.”

“I brought you somethings, I had to spend some time in one of these sort of places after I took down… well, I know they’re not the most fun.”

“You brought me gifts?”

Captain America shrugged. “Some books, notepads, pens, some snacks too.” 

Peter Parker smiled bemusedly as he was passed over a Avengers™ tote bag. 

Steve shook his head. “Apparently if you save the world a few times you get plenty of merchandise… even if you nearly destroyed it a couple of times first.”

Steve went to leave and Peter felt suddenly alone. “Hey, what was the world like, y’know before?” He gestured to mean the passage of time, if there was such a gesture.

  
  


* * *

**\---11pm---**

Peter was flicking through a book Steve had given him, he hadn’t had the heart to admit he had already read it, when Tony Stark sauntered in. Or more like he  _ attempted _ to saunter in, his face was pinched with worry, and all of his movements were tight and controlled. 

He placed his book on his lap as he waited for Tony to speak, the man kept opening and closing his mouth as though to speak, he didn’t seem to be doing a good job. “I met all the Avengers, well most of them, the originals… I thought they’d be scarier.”

“Or more impressive,” Tony let out a snort of laughter. “I told them to let you rest.” 

“The Hawk guy said that you were outside my room…”

“I knew your mom.”

Peter stilled, he had said it so suddenly that Peter was almost certain Stark hadn’t actually meant to say it, he wasn’t even sure that he had heard right, but Captain America had asked about her earlier. “You knew her? What was she-... you know that she was Hydra right?”

“Yeah, found that out today.” He said it so breezily that it was clearly bothering him, a lot. 

“What was she like?” 

Tony thought for a second. “She was brilliant. We hired her at SI, didn’t know she was a super secret spy of course, but she was hired on the spot, I think we were courting her from Oscorp, I don’t know I wasn’t really part of the daily hiring and firing. She was pretty, too.”

Peter smiled gently, Doctor Parker never wanted to talk about her, Tony Stark was the only person he had ever met who knew her. “It’s my fault she’s dead.”

“It’s not.”

“If she hadn’t-.”

“- _ Pete _ .” Tony interrupted. “Trust me, it wasn’t your fault, sometimes these things happen. Look that’s, Mary, she’s why I wanted to talk to you.” He fell silent, with his mouth still open, staring at Peter.

A minute passed, then two. “Er… Mr Stark? Are you okay?” 

Tony jumped as though shocked. “Yeah. Yeah, of course, I’m okay, always. I was just saying; as she’s not here you need a guardian, legally, you’re just a kid, there were some data on you, they lied, you’re not sixteen, you just turned fourteen, I mean even if you were sixteen,” he shook his head to shake his thought process. “You’re gonna need a guardian, and we need to run the tests on you anyway, and make sure you’re not like a super spy intent on taking us down, not that I don’t fancy our chances.” 

Peter’s face scrunched up in confusion. “So I’m gonna go live with someone?”

“With me, us I mean, me and Pepper are going to be your guardians, the rest of the team will be around, we’re going back to the tower.”

“I get to go to Stark Tower?” Peter knew he should have more pressing concerns, his age being different wasn’t a huge shock, he hadn’t remembered his last couple of birthday’s and they had clearly been lying to him. “Mr Stark, thank you-”

Tony held up one hand shutting him up. “Okay kid, first thing’s first, don’t call me Mr Stark, seriously, Tony’s fine, or whatever.” 

“Mr Star-” Peter cleared his throat, “Tony, I mean, did you, do you know who my dad is? I mean I’m not saying I want anything to do with him, he’s probably Hydra or like a deadbeat or whatever-” Peter shook his head just as Tony had a few moments earlier, “I just wanna know…” 

Tony glanced back at the door. “Sorry kid, I don’t… Doctor Cho’s coming back with us, she’ll help you get sorted out, I’ll see you later.” He closed the distance between himself and the exit stopping when he got to it, he turned his head so he could just about see Peter from the corner of his eyes. “I can try and find out for you, he might be on record somewhere, I can… I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you Mr Stark! Thank you so much!” 

“Don’t thank me kid.” He mumbled as he walked out, Peter heard it. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow Tony, hiding that he's your kid will not come back to bite you at all.....
> 
> Russian translations are from google as I can only ask for a coffee with six sugars in french and BSL, which is impressive but in a very sad sorta way 
> 
> translations- 
> 
> ты всего лишь ребенок. - You're just a child.
> 
> Я не ребенок! - I'm not a child


	6. Avengers Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peter can't sleep but neither can Pepper and Tony.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> fluff? from me? shocking, disgraceful, slanderous, but somehow true?  
> ngl been lowkey sick this week (as in unwell, I am always sick as in cool) so this took a hot min to write
> 
> I've been like constantly reading fics, if you have any recs send me links on here or through tumblr loboselinaistrash.tumblr.com
> 
> highly recommend A Peter Parker Problem by Spagbol, it's sooooo good

Peter had ridden to the Avengers’ Tower with Dr Cho, apparently they were the first to get there, part of him was still wondering why Tony Stark had been outside his room all day but didn’t spend much time talking to him, hell he practically ran from the room as soon as he could. Maybe Peter shouldn’t have asked him to find his father, knowing Peter’s luck it’d turn out that Red Skull was still alive and was his dad, he squeezed his eyes shut. He tried to focus on his breathing, to calm himself down, he couldn’t explain what was going on but it all just felt like it was A Lot™, even the lights seemed to be too much. 

“ _ Adjusting the lighting now.”  _

Peter jumped at the sudden voice. 

“That’s just Friday.” Helen told him in that soothing voice she had. 

“ _ Hello Peter, it’s good to see you feeling better.” _

“Oh, erm, hi Friday.” He grimaced when he realised that he had raised his hand to wave hello to the non-existent person. He dropped his hand quickly. “Thank you.” 

“Peter, I’m on the guest levels, just three levels down, if you need me you can just ask Friday to fetch me. I’ll leave Friday to show you to your room.” 

Peter nodded but his eyes were on the massive penthouse in front of him. The elevator had opened onto an open plan living room/ kitchen/ dining room-thing which was about the size of the entire east wing at the compound. 

There was a couch fit for at least twenty Thors, or thirty average people, the wall opposite Peter assumed was just plain black, but a second later he realised that the entire wall was a television screen. There were throws stylishly positioned on the couch and on the few arm chairs diagonally facing the U shaped couch, on the huge square coffee table were scattered several controllers to several different games consoles, they were the only untidy thing Peter could see. He took a few cautious steps into the room until he could see a large kitchen complete with a huge marble island, several coffee machines ranging from coffee shop advert level to a cheap looking one with a glass jug held together with what Peter was certain were 

Two and a half of the sides of the room were just windows, some were doors in disguise leading out to a few balconies, the other walls contained doors to who knows where, some did know where he supposed, but Peter did not.

“Erm, ma’am, er Ms Friday?” 

“ _ Yes Peter?”  _ There was a hint of a smile in the AI’s voice, and fondness, if Peter wasn’t mistaken. 

“Where do I go?”

“ _ You will be living in the Stark suite with Ms Potts and Mr Stark, if you would follow me I can lead you to the suite and to your room, if that’s where you would like to go?”  _

“Er… Yeah, sure…” A line of lights lit to the corridor on the left, he began to follow it, when he opened the door he came to another penthouse, similar to the one he had just left, he froze looking back at the way he had come. “What is-?” 

“ _ -You just left the common room for the entire floor, the Starks, yourself, and the Avengers team and their guests, you are welcome to use it anytime you wish. Boss wishes you to stay on this level when you are without supervision, if you try to leave in the elevator without permission, I will be forced to inform The Boss.” _

Peter’s face scrunched up into a confused expression. “I’m… I’m allowed to just walk around? I’m not, like, being locked up? Aren’t I meant to be a prisoner?” Hell, it was starting to sound like he had more freedom here than he had back at base. 

“ _ I believe it’s not Boss’s intention to make you feel like a prisoner.” _

Peter almost opened his mouth to ask why, but instead just asked Friday to lead him to bed, claiming to be tired, which was only half true, he was confused and wired, he didn’t think he’d sleep for days. 

* * *

Peter had thought that Friday must have taken him to the wrong room, that he was in Stark’s room not his. For starters it was a bedroom bedroom, not a prison, or a dorm, and it was fuckin’ huge. 

It was just as modern as the rest of building, with windows overlooking the whole of the city, Peter gravitated towards them, staring out of them for nearly twenty minutes, he wasn’t used to being up so high, the Hydra base was underground, he felt like he had been transplanted into a different life. 

When he finally tore himself away he looked around the rest of the room, there was a desk, some notebooks, pens, and pencils in the drawers, a large bookcase next to it, completely empty apart from an official Iron Man stuffed toy, Peter rolled his eyes at it but he was smiling, he was aware many thought of the man as arrogant but Peter was starting to see the humour behind his actions. In the centre of the room stood a king sized bed, the covers soft and luxurious, black with a red blanket tucked at the bottom, there were some red cushions with gold piping, he snorted and mumbled. “Starting to get the idea that he’s Iron Man....” 

There was a walk in wardrobe, empty, and far too big, he had spent the last however many years of his life in entirely black outfits, Hydra were really trying to hit all the ‘we’re evil’ stereotypes, he didn’t need this much space… but then he supposed this must be just a standard guest room, for guests, like he was. 

He felt his stomach drop at that and he didn’t understand why, hell Tony Stark hadn’t even wanted to spend any time with him that day, other than to play guard, probably just didn’t trust him, Peter would be out of the Stark suite soon, maybe he could room with one of the other Avengers, Thor might be in space he could stay in his room, or Clint seemed okay, he had told Peter that he knew all the best pizza places in Queens and Brooklyn (he was apparently working on Manhattan’s) , maybe if Hydra had known that Peter would have fallen to the dark side.

He found one of the three pairs of pyjamas, and grabbed them, they seemed warm and he was so cold; cuffed sweats and a blue henley with a small avengers logo on it, if felt like a good fuck you to Hydra, specifically Dr Parker, who Peter tried not to let his mind wonder to.

He grabbed a white fluffy towel from the wardrobe, feeling a little bad knowing that he was grubby from his time sweating through his clothes in the hospital, the towel would not stay stark white…    
But if Tony Stark hadn’t wanted him to ruin his towels he should have been there to have shown him around the place, he should have talked to him, he should have given Peter some hint as to what the fuck he was playing at by letting, ordering, Peter to live in the Stark’s suite.

Peter tried not to be bitter or to let it hurt. Really he should be grateful, he could be anywhere right now; a SHIELD facility, the fucking Raft. He should be grateful. He should stop wondering why Tony had stayed outside of his room all day but had spoken to him for about two minutes. 

Peter walked into the en suite, everything was white as white, there were some Stark™ products in the cabinet above the sink, hidden in a mirror, a first aid kit, an electric toothbrush, the usual things. He debated silently between the bath and the shower for a minute before turning the shower on and cranking the heat up. 

He stayed under the white hot spray until his legs began to wobble, he dried off then stumbled back into the bedroom, determined to stay awake, because it was what Tony Stark didn’t want him to do.

* * *

  
  


“I still don’t understand, Tony.” Pepper’s tone was hushed despite being a whole floor away from Peter, in Tony’s lab the floor below the Stark Suite. “Why don’t you want to tell him? It’s  _ Peter _ ,  _ our Peter _ .” 

Tony flinched at her words, he knew what she was implying, that he was making the decisions, despite Peter being as good as her biological kid too, or at least he had been.

They had already had this conversation, he had already told her the lies, she clearly hadn’t believed them, or at least doubted them.    
“Pep, if he knew he’d be in danger- I mean people already took him once, we can’t let them do that again - him being a Stark puts him in danger - at least let me make sure that there’s none of those bastards around anymore,  _ please _ ?”

Tony Stark did not beg. Tony Stark was begging.

Pepper spoke softly, “Tone…”

“And he’s already had his world turned upside down, what if this is the  _ one thing _ which is just, is just too much?” His hand trailed over his scarred wrist as he spoke, he didn’t realise until he saw Pepper’s face, he dropped his hand. His scars had healed, physical, and mental (or at least as mentally healed as a Stark could get). “And I don’t want him to feel like we’re just taking him in cause of the results on a sheet of paper.” 

That was the truth, at least. 

Pepper tilted her head ever so slightly to the side. “You really liked him before, didn’t you? Before you realised he was our Peter.”

Tony shrugged his shoulders trying to play it casual, but since when had that ever worked on Pepper? He sighed. “I don’t know. He seemed smart, funny, a kid. He called me  _ Mr Stark _ , I mean he was brought up to hate me, to hate us, all the Avengers, but he was so fuckin’ respectful- Nat said he was clearly fanboying when he met them all, not that I wanted them to- he should have met you first, sorry.”

Silence fell on the workshop. 

“Four months.”

“What?” 

“You have four months to tell him-”

“-Pep-”

“ _ Four months _ .”

“Six.”

“ _ Four. _ ”

“Pep-”

“-We can deal with the fall out, but I’m not hiding this from him forever. This isn’t something we can just pretend isn’t happening. We’ll get him talking to a therapist, he won’t do anything like- it’ll help him not feel like a mountain’s falling on him, you’ll get the team to search for anyone else who might have been involved in this, I’ll deal with the media, we’ll protect him, but I’m not lying to him for longer than that.”

Silence other than the tapping of Dum-E doing something, neither of them looked to see what. 

“Tony, I mean it-”

“I know.”

“ _ Tony _ , if you don’t tell him, I will.”

….. “Okay.” 

Pepper watched him scrubb his hand over his face. It was late, they should both be asleep, neither would be able to sleep right now, they were exhausted from their not-fight, but still too wired. She let out an exhausted sigh. 

“I don’t think I’m gonna sleep for about four years.”

Pepper let out a laugh which became contagious. It wasn’t because anything was actually funny, it was a side effect of the past ten years of weight 

“C’mon.” Tony hit a key to turn everything in the lab off, then took his wife’s hand. “I think I know what we need.”

Pepper smiled, this was her favourite Tony, the quieter more caring one who very few people ever saw, the one he had been before he had wrapped himself in iron to survive losing his world. 

* * *

It was late when Peter woke up, he hadn’t meant to even fall asleep, but Friday had offered to play videos of NASA’s latest mission onto the ceiling, telling him that Mr Stark had built several components after his accidental field trip there, or that was how Friday had put it, in her light irish accent as though it had been the same as a field trip like Peter had seen in movies, Peter didn’t think going into space like that looked like fun, not even slightly. 

Above him stars were still swirling over his head but the lights were dimmed. He stretched, his limbs were cold having fallen asleep on top of instead of under the covers, he had been colder since the experiment. 

He was tired but he pushed himself up to sit, he couldn’t go to sleep again, not yet, he knew if he did he would dream of the experiment, of being on fire, of insects crawling under his skin, of the Avengers chasing him. 

He scrubbed his eyes with his balled up fists. “Erm, Fri- Friday?” 

“ _ Yes, Mr Parker? _ ” One of the ceiling tiles lit and pulsed with her words, it was comforting, like having a friend, or Peter assumed. 

In his head Dr Parkers mad ranting played as he swirled and out of consciousness. “Are you allowed to-, I mean can you just call me Peter, please?” 

“ _ Of course, Peter. _ ”

“...I can’t sleep.” 

“ _ Have you had a nightmare? Would you like me to inform Mr Stark that you are awake?”  _

Peter shook his head before realising that he wasn’t sure if she could see him. “No! No... thank you. I’ll be fine. I just…” He thought back to something, something he thought was a memory, it could have been his imagination brought to life by time, being a kid and eating ice cream late at night... “Is there any ice cream here?” 

“The Starks’ fridge contains six flavours of ice cream, the fridge in the Avengers kitchen contains eighteen, I can scan individual rooms fridges if you wish me to?” 

“Crap- no, no, I-” he ran his hand through his hair, he remembered the rum and raisin ice cream, and the licorice ice cream for dessert in the canteen back at base, and the times he snuck off mission to grab edible flavours from stores. “Am I allowed some?”

“ _ Of course, Peter, you are welcome to any of the food and drinks, excluding the alcohol and caffeine, as per the ‘don’t you fucking dare’ protocol, put in place by Boss. _ ” 

Peter let out a snort of laughter as he climbed out of bed, he was tempted to try and pour himself some coffee just to wind Iron Man up, and to stay awake, then he remembered him promising to help find his dad for him, and decided to leave it for the time being. He froze when he reached his bedroom door. “Am I safe? I mean is there anyone I should worry about in the kitchen?” He meant was there anyone at all, he hoped Friday’d get that he didn’t want to be around the Avengers at the moment.

“ _ You are completely safe, Peter. There are no hostiles in the kitchen.” _

Peter decided to trust this strange AI, even if it was because she seemed to be the only thing around him who would talk to him. 

* * *

  
  


Of course he immediately found Mr Stark and Ms Potts on the couch between him and the kitchen, they both had pints of ice cream in their hands. He watched concern appear on their faces before Potts’ changed to a huge smile, he swore he could see tears in her eyes. He watched the pair stand up as he stood there unsure of what to say or do.

Tony’s eyes were scanning Peter for any injuries when Pepper elbowed him, his head snapped to her, he realised she was giving him a look, oh! He hid his surprise and caid calmly, “Pete, this is The Pepper Potts, Pep this is Pete.”

“Sorry, about him.” Pepper rolled her eyes at her husband’s introduction. “I’m Tony’s wife and the CEO of-”

“-Stark Industries,” I’ve seen you on the news, Ms Potts, your work at SI has been amazing and you-”

“Er,” Tony cut off what was almost certainly about to be an awkwardly regurgitated list of facts on Pepper’s whole career, he held his hand up like he was back at school, “should I be insulted that you weren’t this excited to meet me?” The joke came easy to Tony, as they always did.

Peter shrugged, his mouth twitched into a small smirk. “I already threw up on you, don’t think I could really fix that.” He heard Tony snort with laughter. 

“You can just call me Pepper, or Pep, okay Peter?” She watched him nod and she smiled at him. “I peeked in on you earlier, you were fast asleep, Tony did the same an hour or so ago, did something wake you?”

Peter shook his head and looked at the ground. 

“You had a nightmare.” Tony stated, he had just connected the signs, the way he wasn’t looking at them, the way he was looking sheepish and embarrassed, the way he was shuffling his feet, the last thing especially struck Tony as something  _ his _ Petey did. “Come sit down.”

Peter’s head snapped up, was he in trouble? He was in trouble? Shit. “Oh, I was- I didn’t mean to, to-”

“- _ Bambino _ ,” Tony cut him off, he could hear Pepper sucking in a breath at the name which had only ever belonged to Peter Stark, “you’re not in trouble, we couldn’t sleep either, that’s why we have ice cream. So park your ass.”

“Ice cream?” Peter raised an eyebrow but a smile played on his lips. “Shouldn’t I be fed like bread and water, y’know, the whole prisoner thing?”

Tony rolled his eyes but an identical smile was on his lips. “Fine if you don’t want ice cream…”

“I didn’t say that.” Peter grumbled, but the grumble didn’t reach his eyes.

Tony held his breath as Peter threw himself into the seat beside his, despite there being plenty of other places on the couch. He quickly hid his surprise before Peter could notice. He held out the spoon he had been using, Peter hesitated and Tony rolled his eyes with a teasing smirk. “I haven’t got cooties, Pete.” 

Peter took the spoon, he went to grab the pint of cookie dough from Tony, he pulled it away and Peter rolled his eyes but grabbed a spoonful without trying to take the pint from the man, he smiled as he chewed on the cookie dough ball and handed Tony back the spoon with a challenge in his eyes, before he could copy what Tony had said to him Tony took it and dug in. 

They carried on in this fashion and Peter couldn’t help but notice the fond roll of her eyes and smile as Pepper watched them, she must have caught him catching her smiling as she quickly asked for movie suggestions, as though it wasn’t two in the morning. He stared at the massive tv and watched as she flicked down the list of movies they seemed to have every movie ever made, and knowing the Starks they probably did. 

The next thing he knew the shared spoon was snatched from him and something cloth was in his face. His head snapped towards Tony with a glare, not even bothering to see what it was he had passed him. 

“You’re shivering, and I’d rather watch a movie then watch you in the med bay with hypothermia, put it on.”

He opened the cloth up to reveal a large red hoodie, the letters MIT on the front, the cloth was soft, it looked warm, it looked… well it looked old, the colours ever so slightly washed. He swore to god he could smell that it smelt exactly like the man beside him, even though he didn’t hold it close to his face, he made note to tell Banner and Stark (the  _ real _ Mr Stark not this night time jokey one) about that, and then rest of the things he had noticed. 

Peter froze. The hoodie was clearly worn from  _ age _ and  _ use _ , and he knew from general Hydra intel that Tony Stark had attended MIT, what did this mean? Did it even mean anything? Why did he care, why were they wanting to spend time with him? Did they not trust him to be alone? He heard Tony sigh and realised that he had taken Peter’s statue-like posture as a protest rather than his confusion. 

“Seriously, kid, it’s either put it on or no more ice cream.”

Peter wordlessly shrugged it on, and found that Tony was right, it was warmer, he could pretend that he did it for the ice cream, he held his hand out for the spoon and stole a massive cookie dough chunk he realised Tony had been eating around.

“Dunno what Clint claims about raising kids,” Tony mumbled under his breath to Pepper, but Peter heard him, “just give them ice cream or withhold ice cream.”

“You should write a book.” Pepper said dryly, a smile shared between the pair when their eyes met, even if Tony pretended to look annoyed, purely because he was the most dramatic person Pepper had ever known.

“Pete; you’re the deciding vote, I voted for Star Wars before you got here, Pep wants-”

“Star Wars.” Peter said without a second of hesitation. “Wait is it the really really old ones? I mean I’d watch the newer ones too, but the old ones are classics-” He silenced himself as he watched Tony throw his arms up in celebration, and cheer, while Pepper rolled her eyes and tried to complain but was smiling… they were an odd pair, so unlike what Peter knew about them, he would have felt that he was intruding had he not also felt like they wanted him there….

Tony ruffled Peter’s hair automatically. It wasn’t because he was the same Peter as he had lost, he argued with himself in his head, he just really wanted to watch Star Wars “And, kid, we’re having words tomorrow about what’s being classified as ‘old’.”

“Agreed.” Pepper grumbled, but she smiled as Tony told Friday to turn the lights down, and he threw a throw over the three of them. He had been better, these last few years, but tonight she swore she could see Tony Stark, Peter Stark's father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sooooo i thought i had like 30 WIPS, but it turns out I only have 20 so Imma start a new one with the abused peter trope cause idk i guess i love pain?  
> if you want some fluffy oneshots, or some Harley Keener, check out my iron is thicker than water series, please send me prompts i miss getting prompts *tiniest violin plays*
> 
> loboselinaistrash.tumblr.com (come shout hi at me, talk, send me prompts, laugh at how bad I am at playing among us.....

**Author's Note:**

> Hit me up on Tumblr loboselinaistrash.tumblr.com I accept prompts for oneshots and weird ass messages or infodumps on characters or whatever


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